Bar and restaurant on Hypolita Street housed in an 1879 Victorian-era home originally built by George Colee — the focus of one of St. Augustine's longest-running haunted-pub stories.
70 Hypolita St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Mid-tier full-service restaurant pricing; full bar service.
Access
Limited Access
Multi-story Victorian-era home with stairs to the upper floors; ground-floor dining is more accessible than the upstairs Ghost Bar.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1879 · Victorian-era domestic architecture · Colee family of St. Augustine · Haunted-bar tradition since 1979 · Hypolita and Cordova historic streetscape
The two-building complex now occupied by Scarlett O'Hara's / The Scarlett House stands at the corner of Cordova Street and Hypolita Street in St. Augustine's historic district. Per Ghost City Tours and Visit St. Augustine, the larger of the two original structures was erected in 1879 by George Colee for his soon-to-be wife. Colee was a member of a prominent St. Augustine family active in the city's carriage and tourist transportation business in the late 19th century.
Per the same sources, Colee's fiancée left him before he could complete the home, eloping with a soldier. Colee subsequently married another woman, but his domestic life ended in tragedy: he was found drowned in the bathtub upstairs in the home a few weeks after the marriage. Whether the drowning was the result of foul play or a self-inflicted act remains contested in the ghost-tour literature; the historical record on this point is incomplete.
In 1979, restaurateurs Barry Gaines and Kevin Finch combined the Colee house with an adjacent property and converted the complex into Scarlett O'Hara's, a full-service bar and restaurant named for the Margaret Mitchell character. The restaurant was a Hypolita Street fixture for over four decades. In the early 2020s the venue was rebranded as 'The Scarlett House.'
The property has been featured in published lists of haunted Florida restaurants, including a Thrillist piece syndicated by News4Jax in 2018 that named it among the most haunted bars in Florida.
Sources
Per Ghost City Tours, Visit St. Augustine, and the 2018 Thrillist piece syndicated by News4Jax, the most-cited paranormal account at Scarlett O'Hara's concerns George Colee. We treat his death — drowning in an upstairs bathtub a few weeks after a difficult marriage — with care: the cause is contested in ghost-tour literature (foul play versus self-harm), the historical record is incomplete, and we decline to sensationalize it as a confirmed suicide.
The second floor of the building now hosts the 'Ghost Bar,' where bartenders and patrons have described, per the cited sources, Colee moving chairs, lighting candles that staff have not lit, scaring guests, triggering burglar alarms when the building is otherwise unoccupied, and altering the thermostat. Several reports describe staff arriving upstairs to find candle wicks already burning, despite staff not having lit them.
Reports also concentrate in the upstairs men's restroom, where flickering lights and brief apparitional figures are described. The 2018 Thrillist coverage named the venue among the most haunted bars in Florida, which the bar's marketing currently echoes.
We note that the rebranding to 'The Scarlett House' is recent and that the property's social-media and marketing presence has shifted accordingly; the Colee narrative remains consistent across the rebrand. Single-source contestation about the nature of Colee's death is a key reason we set status to needs-review.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Dine in the 1879 Victorian-era home of George Colee on Hypolita Street. The upstairs 'Ghost Bar' is the focal point of the property's paranormal reputation and is staffed by bartenders accustomed to questions about the building's lore.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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